


Outline for an Edwardian Dean/Cas Story

by Unforth



Series: Tumblr Ficlets: Supernatural [54]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Magic, M/M, Pagan God Dean, outline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 13:14:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10697745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforth/pseuds/Unforth
Summary: This is a little different than the other Tumblr stuff I've been posting, in that I actually hope to write this whole story, but I figured, what the hell, have it all in one place.Edwardian Dean/Cas inspired by diminuel's (SillyBlue on AO3) artwork and her Pagan God Dean 'verse. Castiel is a young man looking to start his career; Sam hires him to watch over the family manor, and then things get weird...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SillyBlue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SillyBlue/gifts).



> [diminuel](http://diminuel.tumblr.com/), aka SillyBlue on AO3, did a lovely piece of art work that I found truly inspiring. I would ultimately like to flesh this out and write it as an actual story, maybe in the fall - she and I have batted some ideas around - but I figured all this content is already on Tumblr and if I had the posts in one place it'd make my life easier.
> 
> Inspiration artwork:  
> 
> 
> My tag for this 'verse is [Edwardian PGD](http://unforth-ninawaters.tumblr.com/tagged/edwardian-pgd).

unforth: Oooh so is your thinking that Dean is a god in that ‘verse? I’ll own I’d been picturing him more as a ghost, or some other spirit or entity that was inhabiting the house…

diminuel: It’s a spin on my Pagan Gods Verse where Dean’s a god of fire, home and families. He is somewhat of a mix between a ghost and an entity. He used to be a god centuries ago, but he “died” or rather faded. Castiel probably thinks he’s a ghost, but he definitely can be brought back to life with a bit (or a lot!) of love. ;3 But it’s not like I’d be averse to hearing different ideas!!

unforth: 

God I love that picture.

So I mentioned that I’d love to write a story with that? Well I haven’t let myself think about it too much cause I flat-out do not have time right now but I was envisioning…

Okay.

I’m envisioning this as set in the UK, sometime in the mid 19th century, and while the supernatural exists, it has grown fashionable to dismiss the existence of werewolves, vampires, gods, ghosts, etc., as mere superstitious fancies of the poor and uneducated…since such creatures have largely been forced from the cities out into the country, away from where people live.

So Castiel is a young man recently graduated from finishing school. His family has little means, but a name that was once well-respected. They love him very much and through their efforts he was able to get an education far above his station in life, and the opportunities that go with that. With that background, Castiel sets out to make something of himself. He wants a solid position - enough that he can save money to better those who come after him, enough that he can send money home to begin to repay the sacrifices that his parents and siblings made on his behalf. He’d worked through his time in school, so he has a small nest egg, and with that he takes a small ad in a national periodical indicating his skill set and that he seeks employment and he’s not picky where he gets it. His expectation is that he’ll be hired as a tutor or a governess (it might be ABO? He might be an omega? I dunno, I haven’t thought it that far through). He has several interviews but none result in employment.

Sam Winchester comes to see him and explains the position he has in mind. He doesn’t need a tutor. He needs someone with education and few attachments to the city to come and see to a property that Sam has recently inherited out in the country. The house needs a steward, someone who will see to the grounds, collect the rents, maintain the building as best it can be. The relative from whom Sam inherited the property has let it grow sadly decrepit, and whenever Sam talks about the state of things there he sounds inexplicably angry, almost furious; when Castiel timidly asks why, Sam explains that many of the best times of his childhood were in that house and he’s determined to see it restored to glory but he’s unable to do so himself, for he has far too many commitments in London. The pay is *incredibly* generous, the situation sounds ideal to Castiel’s preferences and temperament and sensibilities (honestly he was kind of terrified of being responsible for the care of an unknown number of boisterous children but he’d thought it his best shot in life) and the only condition that is worrisome is that Castiel must reside _in_  the house - problematic since at least to begin with it sounds like there are no other servants, the roof is caving in, the property is overgrown, and the location is isolated. It’s not like Castiel has ever managed a property before, though he did help his parents run the household and care for his younger siblings (he’s eldest…)

Castiel takes the job.

Sam escorts him to the house. It really is in the middle of nowhere; they take a steam locomotive north, and north, and north, and then catch a simple wain, with a knackered old lame horse and a driver so old and worn that it looks like a stiff breeze might blow the dusty skin from his cracked bones. With a shiver - surely just the frigid wind blowing off the moors - Castiel remembers the stories of _creatures_  he’s heard about, but those are only myths. There’s no such thing. Castiel is a rationalist, he’s studied the scientific method, and he doesn’t NOT believe there are “…more things in heaven and earth…”

…but arriving at the Winchester manor, he does have to keep reminding himself. The grounds are wild, with standing stones peeking out from amidst the undergrowth. Sam says the stones are hundreds or thousands of years old, and no one knows who set them there or who meticulously carved them with runes. The house is gorgeous yet somehow sad, the windows wide and vacant like the staring eyes of a skull, the rooms empty, or draped with moth-eaten cloth, or filled with molding, rotting furniture. Wandering the halls with Sam leading the way, describing the house, painting the rooms with light and life that they haven’t experienced anytime in the last century, or so Castiel would think by a visual inspection. The fireplaces are cold, only traces of ash to speak to the fires of yore, and many of the stones bear runes similar to those on the standing stones. Running a finger over them, Castiel _almost_  thinks that he can understand, but how could he? None remember that dead language. 

It feels like eyes are continually on him. Whenever he enters a new space, gazes around, explores, Sam watches him from across the room. Even when, apologetically, Sam says he has to return to London on the late train and leaves, Castiel cannot escape the feeling that he’s not alone. There is continual noise - the groan of shifting wood, the howl of the wind, the skittering of creatures that have taken up residence in the chimneys and within the walls. The darkness in the house is absolute; there’s no wood chopped to lay a fire, cold suffuses the air, the furniture, Castiel’s very bones, and the only candles are those that Castiel brought with him, the only food that which he carried in his satchel. Tomorrow, he’ll have to go to the nearest village, some miles away, buy supplies and hire a cart to bring them back, and he pushes away his wild, juvenile fancies by compiling a mental list of what he’ll need - he can’t compose an actual list, for he brought no paper nor ink. Wrapped in a blanket that Sam had casually pulled off the only serviceable bed, releasing a cloud of tiny bugs and dust and cobwebs into the air, Castiel sits on an armchair whose cushions are sunken in and tries not to jump at the shadows.

There’s no clock.

He has no idea what time it is when, fatigued from the journey and the stress, he finally settles into bed. He’s mostly asleep when a glimmer of light passes over his eyes. He thinks it a dream, but then there’s a puff of warmth over his skin, and he opens his eyes to see a single flame hovering in the fireplace, though there’s no fuel, no source of any kind.

_Poppycock and nonsense!_

Castiel goes to sleep.

The next day he runs his errands, he explores the house by the cold light of a gray, dreary afternoon, and takes an inventory of what is salvagable. When it starts to rain, he goes to the attic and makes a catalog of each leak; he’d found a roofer in the village. Sam, at least, has given Castiel more than ample funds to achieve his instructions. He settles in for the night with the rain pouring on down, clattering on the roof and in the rafters, splashing over the windows. Though the ink is scarce warm enough to be fluid, he writes letters to his family and friends, reporting brightly on his grim situation. 

He gets into bed.

He closes his eyes.

He drifts toward sleep.

Light glows behind his eyes. Heat warms his skin.

He refuses to open his eyes. 

The light doesn’t fade until he finally falls into exhausted rest.

The next morning, he explores the fireplace, but there’s no sign of anything, only the mysterious runes and the charred marks of long-dead fires. There’s not an ember, not a twig, not even a leaf that might burn. Castiel puts the nonsense from his mind, hires the roofer, consults a gardener, asks around for a permanent household staff and finds that no one is willing to live in the house. He returns home with a new batch of purchases, pushes the functional furniture into the most sound rooms, stacks all the debris in an old storeroom off the kitchen, cleans. By the time he’s done he’s filthy but he has three functional, furnished rooms - a bedroom, a parlor, and a study-slash-personal lounge-slash-dining area. There’s only cold water with which to sponge himself off, and it’s very late - the clock he’s obtained indicates nearly midnight - when he returns to his bedroom.

The flame is lit on the mantle.

Frightened - he’s awake, he’s so awake - he flees the room.

There’s a single perfect flame, a mirror to the first, in every room of the house…


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Edwardian PGD verse, in reply to this anon:  
> In the Edwardian PGD thingy, how does Cas react to this powerful Alpha slowly coming back into being and being just. the clingiest thing.

diminuel: I wonder if he would actually start out as being clingy? Maybe he comes across as kinda threatening even though he’s very sweet, hurt and starved for love. It probably also depends on how Cas generally reacts to alphas.

Maybe we’d have to ask [@unforth-ninawaters](https://tmblr.co/mmDQHLLxNZa41hFqph6pWhQ) what she thinks! ;D

 

unforth:

Hmmm…

So I have a bunch of ideas…

Do you really wanna know spoilers for what I think will happen next? :)

…if so, keep reading…

It takes a lot of work before Dean even manifests for the first time - I think an old groundskeeper named Bobby is involved - and when he finally does, he’s scarce a shadow. Castiel keeps telling himself there’s a rational explanation for what’s going on but nothing he knows, nothing anyone else tells him, nothing he’s able to find, can scientifically explain why there is a ghostly being claiming to be an ancient fire deity lingering about the house. Dean is…well, to be frank, Dean is terrifying. Even insubstantial, he’s broad, tall, and when Castiel finally stops low-key constantly freaking out about the situation (which takes a while), Dean pretty much follows him everywhere. For Dean to manifest, there has to be a candle lit, and as Dean grows stronger - though remaining phantasmal - Castiel notices that the scent of the tallow smoke shifts subtly, grows stronger, grows unique - and recognizes that it’s Dean’s smell, and eventually scents it enough to know that Dean is an alpha.

That freaks him out all over again.

Castiel has studied history. He _knows_  what alphas were like in the past. And he’s keenly aware of the contradiction that, on the one hand, he’s in utter denial about Dean being an ancient fire spirit, and on the other, Dean isn’t a frightening alpha if he’s NOT an ancient fire spirit.

Dean, for his part, finds Castiel baffling. How can one person so constantly and determinedly deny the evidence of their own eyes? And what does Castiel think Dean is going to *do* to him? Dean just wants to talk.

What finally breaks the impasse between them - Castiel can’t bring himself in good conscience to allow Dean’s candle to burn out, but he also can’t bear to be around Dean - is an accident. One night, Castiel has run out of candles, so he uses the light of Dean’s candle to read by. Since he generally ignores Dean’s existence with ever fiber of his being rather than deal with the contradictions of Dean’s presence (and damnation Dean smells GOOD how unfair is that?) he is oblivious to Dean reading over his shoulder. When, gritty eyed, Castiel finally goes to bed, he leaves his book sitting open…

…the next morning, when he returns to the salon, he finds Dean sitting over the book, looking sad.

“Will you please turn the page for me?”

After that…well, it’s strained, certainly. Castiel is still panicky, and Dean struggles to overlook that Castiel is treating him like the worst kind of alpha even though Dean has literally never done a *thing* to him, and has been a gentleman even when Castiel has treated him beyond rudely (Castiel spent over week *denying Dean’s very existence!*). But they talk.

They read together.

They talk about what they read.

And, day by day, Castiel recognizes how wrong he is. Even as he continues to work on restoring the house, recruiting staff, he forges a friendship with Dean. Dean is gentle, sweet, intelligent. Dean has apparently been asleep for hundreds of years…yet can read and speak English? Dean is funny and kind and thoughtful. Little by little, Castiel falls for Dean, and feels like he’s losing his mind. The entire situation is so impossible.

There’s a lot more - I think Castiel hires a beta named Meg to work as a servant, and she flirts, and Dean (who is bound to where his flame is and thus only sees bits and pieces of events) is insanely jealous.

I think groundskeeper Singer works tirelessly to restore the grounds, especially the standing stones, and Castiel studies the runes and tries to figure out how he can summon Dean, or at least secure him to something more permanent than a single flame that a stiff breeze can extinguish.

I think that Dean is as hopelessly in love with Castiel as Castiel is in love with Dean, but Dean believes that he will be disembodied forever, and so out of chivalry he says nothing.

I think that, selflessly, Castiel continues to try to summon Dean, because even believing his feelings unreciprocated, it’s agony to him to know how Dean has suffered, and he will express his love by helping Dean.

I think something, sometime, snaps, and they confess to each other.

I think that, one night, Castiel carries Dean’s candle to his room, and with that lovely smell filling every crevice of the space, he gives Dean a graphic demonstration of how foolish Dean was not to say anything and how much Castiel wants him.

Basically, I think that by the time Castiel figures out how to get Dean a body, they’ve already communicated enough, and been in love long enough, that when Dean finally manifests (and is every bit as touch starved as anon suggests) they are all over each other and neither minds at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Third chunk of Edwardian PDG musing in response to this anon:  
> Saw this on Steffi's (may she be blessed) blog, and I was wondering about your thoughts on it (because I love your thoughts and your blog and you): diminuel DOT tumblr DOT com/post/158709250905
> 
> (that post:  
> Anon: In the Edwardian or Victorian Pagan God Dean thingy, do you think Dean can leave the mansion grounds? Like, is he bound to it? Or maybe he can, but it's more difficult for him until he's full returned, like he gets weaker the further he goes? Or is there something Cas can carry that can let him come along, like a special lantern or candle or something that, as long as it remains lit, Dean can remain fairly strong nearby?
> 
> diminuel:   
> I misread this at first and thought you asked “can Cas carry him” and was amused by the image.
> 
> But I suppose he can leave eventually, maybe not far at first and maybe he does need the help you say. But where exactly can he go? He looks a bit too peculiar to just waltz into the next village. (Though now I’m imagining him walking around the marshes and fields, crossing paths with wanderers and a myth about his presence being recovered. That would probably help him regain power, but it would be very slow going.)

Hey anon! Omgeee I’m so excited to get this ask I never get asks about stuff like this, like head canony stuff, and it’s awesome!! <3

First, I’ve not been terribly organized about this ‘verse, so I think I should probably create a tag for it? I dunno. I’m crap at this stuff. The origination is of course [@diminuel](https://tmblr.co/mDS2IsHkSaaszWIJCjUn4mw)‘s [lovely artwork](http://diminuel.tumblr.com/post/157751822265/dont-let-the-light-go-out-the-crumbling), and I wrote out some thoughts I had on it was a verse in [this post](http://unforth-ninawaters.tumblr.com/post/158546246383/unforth-ninawaters), and expanded that a bit more in [this one](http://unforth-ninawaters.tumblr.com/post/158595996788/in-the-edwardian-pgd-thingy-how-does-cas-react-to). It looks like we’re going with “Edwardian Pagan God Dean ‘Verse” so I guess I’ll tag everything from now on as “#edwardian pgd”

Second, as to your specific question. I actually wrote a short reply on the original post on diminuel’s blog:

“I think Dean might be able to appear insubstantial/incorporeal/invisible, and so before Dean has a body Castiel wants to show Dean how the village has changed so he brings the candle with him and Dean is able to see it but Cas feels like an idiot because hes wandering around in broad daylight with a lit candle” 

To expand on that…

I think Dean was bound on the mansion grounds, though I’ll own I haven’t thought through my conceptualization of the ‘verse enough yet to know how or why (diminuel, any thoughts?). So he’s got a two-fold problem of, 1. he’s trapped there, and 2. he’s no longer worshiped by anyone (Bobby Singer does not count…) so he’s very weak. Sam IS Dean’s brother, and is a God himself, but he was able to escape imprisonment (he inadvertently had a hand in that imprisonment himself? ala canon where he got duped into helping free Lucifer?). Holding on to Sam’s own existence has been difficult, and the terms of Dean’s imprisonment make it impossible for Sam to free him, so Sam instead has tried to keep Dean safe, tried to keep the prison intact, because part of the way the imprisonment was structured is that Dean’s existence is tied to the house. It was the only way to capture a deity as powerful as Dean once was - to link his immortal essence to something that could be destroyed. If the house ceases to exist, Dean will cease to exist.

However, in a parallel to that, even without freeing Dean, and even without getting him new worshipers, the house can actually be Dean’s strength as well as his downfall. If the mansion is well maintained and well kept, if the grounds are respected and loved, then Dean will be healthier. Thus, getting a conscientious caretaker like Castiel - even when he initially is totally freaked out and wants nothing to do with Dean - helps Dean recover and gets him healthy.

Initially, as I said, I think Dean is completely linked to the flame and, to a lesser (but every increasing) extent, to the one mortal who - regardless of how negative a reaction said mortal had - now believes in Dean and knows he exists. Castiel’s presence becomes increasingly essential to Dean’s health, and Dean flourishes when Castiel is around, especially once Castiel gives up his attempts to rationalize away Dean’s existence and accepts that Dean is real and is not going away. The house binds Dean in place, inflammable stone traps him, but where there is hope, where there is belief, there is a future for him, and where the flame goes, Dean goes.

Castiel *wants* to share the world with Dean, and Dean wants to see how things have changed, so initially Castiel will go out at night, when having the candle makes sense and when Dean’s insubstantial, incorporeal form will not be visible even should they encounter someone. However, the countryside is deserted enough and dangerous enough that it’s not safe at night, and I suspect they run afoul of some kind of trouble - Dean’s first manifestation, and it takes a lot out of him, is protecting Castiel from a group that sets upon him. (Castiel is a really capable dude, especially intellectually, but nothing in his life up to now prepared him to actually fight). Afterwards, Dean doesn’t manifest for days and Castiel is terrified that the expenditure of energy was too much for the weakened deity (And in his fears Castiel recognizes for the first time just how much Dean is coming to mean to him) and, as much as anything, Castiel’s dwelling on Dean is what strengthens him - that and that, unbeknownst to Castiel or Dean, the people that Dean drove away saw him and speak of him as a fiery spirit plaguing the moors, and Castiel as his servant, and in those retellings, Dean’s essence rekindles, because people see him, people believe in him, people acknowledge his existence and his power.

As diminuel says in her reply, it’s a slow process, but I don’t think it’d be as slow as she fears? Because the people of the village have believed all along that the manor was haunted, and now there’s *proof* because everyone knows that Castiel keeps the manor, and if Castiel was assaulted and protected by a spirit, well, that’s confirmation of what they suspected all along! Some people are fearful, because of course the tale spread by Castiel’s would-be assaulters paints themselves as the victims and Castiel as the aggressor, but the villagers aren’t stupid - they know Castiel, know the kind of person he is (weird, over-clever with city ways, but also strangely naive and guileless and clearly ultimately harmless), and the assailant’s own reputation proceeds them, too - most people know they are not to be trusted - and so the belief grows. 

That the house is haunted.

That Castiel has befriended the spirit or spirits.

That the spirits are benevolent, that they protect the weak from the strong, the victim from the attacker, the outnumbered from those surrounding them.

Knowledge of spirits is more common in the hinterlands than in the big cities. These people know that the supernatural is real. They know that the howls out on the moor during the full moon are just Madison the werewolf, who is their friend and neighbor the rest of the time but must be avoided at all costs when the moon is bright and high. They know that Bobby Singer has looked middle aged since their grand parents were children, since their grand parents’ grand parents were children, and that he’s tended the grounds of the manor throughout the years. They know that Sam Winchester is cursed in some manner, and make a sign to ward off evil when he’s around. And they know that an entity like Dean, whether he be good or evil, needs to be respected. They know that Castiel keeps a candle lit - they’ve seen him with the candle, because Castiel ventured into town with it, and some of the youngsters who foolishly went out to the manor to spy have also seen it and seen Dean linked to it - and so to appease this powerful creature, whose abilities and proclivities are yet unknown, they’ll light candles themselves, and in so doing, Dean will slowly recover, slowly grow powerful, slowly begin to break free of his prison.

What no one expects is what a difference Castiel’s love makes…

So…those are my thoughts. ;)


End file.
